Department for Education

Children: Education

lord touhig: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish a response to the consultation on children not in school, which closed on 24 June 2019.

baroness berridge: In the spring of 2019, a consultation was held on proposals for a mandatory register of children not attending state or registered independent schools to help local authorities carry out their responsibilities in relation to children not in school. Almost 5000 responses were received to the consultation which closed in June 2019. They have now been considered and a formal government response document setting out next steps will be issued in due course.

Out-of-school Education

baroness whitaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the commitment to legislate to strengthen Ofsted's powers in relation to unregistered schools made in their Integrated Communities Action Plan, published in February 2019.

baroness whitaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government what powers they intend to give Ofsted to support inspectors to (1) investigate, (2) prosecute, and (3) close, unregistered schools.

baroness whitaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will legislate to strengthen Ofsted's powers to (1) investigate, (2) prosecute, and (3) close, unregistered schools.

baroness whitaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure that providers found guilty of running unregistered schools are prevented from doing so again in future.

baroness berridge: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, remains committed to legislate in order to strengthen Ofsted’s powers in relation to its investigation of unregistered independent schools. We are working closely with Ofsted to clarify what those enhanced powers will look like so that anyone found to be running an illegal school complies with the law or is prosecuted and that these settings close.On 14 February, we announced that we would be increasing our funding to Ofsted to build upon and expand its work in tackling and investigating unregistered independent schools successfully and preparing cases for prosecution. In 2016, we established a joint team with Ofsted to tackle unregistered schools. Between 1 January 2016 and 31 August 2019, Ofsted has undertaken 362 inspections of 293 suspected unregistered independent schools – 83 settings were issued with a warning notice and Ofsted made sure 72 of these stopped operating illegally. There have also been three successful prosecutions.We have recently issued two section 128 barring directions to individuals convicted of operating an unregistered independent school and will continue to pursue further barring directions where it is deemed appropriate.

Department of Health and Social Care

Alcoholic Drinks: Minimum Prices

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by NHS Health Scotland Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol evaluation, published in November 2019, in particular the finding that the volume of pure alcohol sold per adult through the off trade in Scotland fell by 7.3per cent in contrast to an increase of 5.9per cent in England and Wales over the same period.

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what changes will be required to the NHS Constitution for England as a result of the introduction of new operational targets for the NHS.

lord bethell: No formal assessment has been made of the report by NHS Health Scotland on minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol. The Scottish Government is taking forward a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of introducing MUP. The Scottish legislation also includes a sunset clause and the Scottish Government are required to present a report on the impact of MUP to their Parliament five years after implementation which will be published in 2023.There are no plans for the introduction of MUP in England. The Government will continue to monitor the progress of MUP in Scotland and will consider available evidence of its impact, including the report by NHS Scotland.

Alcoholic Drinks: Minimum Prices

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce minimum unit pricing for sales of alcohol in England.

lord bethell: No formal assessment has been made of the report by NHS Health Scotland on minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol. The Scottish Government is taking forward a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of introducing MUP. The Scottish legislation also includes a sunset clause and the Scottish Government are required to present a report on the impact of MUP to their Parliament five years after implementation which will be published in 2023.There are no plans for the introduction of MUP in England. The Government will continue to monitor the progress of MUP in Scotland and will consider available evidence of its impact, including the report by NHS Scotland.

Genito-urinary Medicine

lord hunt of kings heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the barriers related to (1) ethnicity, (2) gender, (3) age, (4) sexuality, and (5) English literacy level, associated with accessing sexual health services.

lord bethell: No specific assessment has been made. Local authorities in England are mandated to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services including access to the full range of contraception and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment.Work on the development of a new national sexual and reproductive health strategy is underway with the Department working with Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement, local government and other partners. Details of the strategy’s scope will be announced in due course.

Coronavirus

lord jones of cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government what training programmes are in place to equip healthcare professionals in England with the necessary skills to (1) test, and (2) treat, patients for Coronavirus.

lord bethell: We practise and prepare our response to disease outbreaks and follow tried and tested procedures, following the highest safety standards possible for the protection of National Health Service staff, patients and the public. Specific guidance on handling people with COVID-19 has been shared with NHS staff. Public Health England has also published online guidance for first responders and others who may have close contact with people with potential COVID-19. The Government has published an Action Plan which outlines the steps the Government will take to manage COVID-19 if there turns out to be a sustained United Kingdom epidemic.

MMR Vaccine

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve MMR vaccination rates.

lord bethell: NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England and key stakeholders are implementing actions from the Measles and rubella UK elimination strategy 2019, to increase take-up of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This includes:- Implementing a catch-up vaccination programme for 10 and 11-year olds through general practices, to continue into 2020/21;- Notifications from Child Health Information Services to help general practices identify children with due and overdue vaccinations; and- Initiatives led by local teams to address inequalities in vaccine uptake, such as a targeted MMR catch-up campaign with 16 universities in October 2019.

Antibiotics: Research

lord empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what funds they have made available for research into, and trials of, new antibiotics.

lord bethell: Research into new antibiotics falls within a wider portfolio of research and development to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Since 2014, the United Kingdom Government has invested more than £360 million in AMR research. The United Kingdom Research and Innovation councils support basic science relevant to AMR, including research into new antibiotics. In addition, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Department invests in applied health research to evaluate public health measures, healthcare interventions and health services addressing the use of antimicrobial drugs. This includes research to evaluate strategies to incentivise industry to develop new antibiotics. The NIHR also supports AMR research for the primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding.

Hospital Beds

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase the number of NHS hospital beds available in England.

lord bethell: The National Health Service operational planning guidance for 2020-21 sets out that systems and organisations will be expected to reduce general and acute bed occupancy levels to a maximum of 92%.The operational assumption is that the peak of open bed capacity achieved through the winter of 2019/20 will be at least maintained through 2020/21, including the 3,000 bed increase from October 2019 already planned for.Credible plans to release capacity through reductions in length of stay, improvements in delayed transfers of care, and admission avoidance programmes will be required where the increase is not above this level.

Public Health

baroness bennett of manor castle: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure effective collaboration between the four UK public health authorities and their EU counterparts once the transition period ends.

lord bethell: The United Kingdom is open to exploring cooperation between the UK and the European Union on matters of health security, as well as on commitments on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) prevention, in future relationship negotiations with the EU. The Government is committed to establishing a future relationship that benefits the whole of the UK. There are strong existing relationships between the UK's four public health agencies and their counterparts in EU Member States and we work closely with them to protect our citizens from cross-border threats to health, such as the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The UK remains committed to working with countries and partners from across the world, both bilaterally and in multilateral fora, such as the World Health Organization, G7 and the Global Health Security Initiative and we will continue to uphold all of our commitments under the International Health Regulations.

NHS: Standards

lord warner: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to monitor progress by NHS England in the delivery of its Long Term Plan for the NHS against the cash figures in the NHS Funding Bill; whether those arrangements will identify specific progress in relation to mental health services and community health services, including the deployment of additional staff; and what plans they have to keep Parliament and the public informed on progress in delivering the Long Term Plan.

lord bethell: We have agreed a number of headline metrics against which progress on delivering the NHS Long Term Plan will be measured. NHS England published these headline metrics along with initial proposals for the specific measures to underpin them in July 2019. The metrics and proposed measures include real spend on primary and community health services, as well as on mental health services, rolling out community services response times, and the number of adults and children accessing mental health services.We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to finalise the underpinning measures. Both metrics and the measures will be embedded in the Government’s statutory mandate to NHS England from 2020-21, and performance against them will therefore be reflected in the Government’s annual assessment of NHS England’s performance which includes performance against the mandate. Both the mandate and the annual assessment will be laid in Parliament and published.

Department for Work and Pensions

Marriage Guidance

baroness howe of idlicote: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money has been spent under section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 on (1) the provision of marriage support services, (2) research into the causes of marital breakdown, and (3) the research into ways of preventing marital breakdown, for every financial year since the Act was passed.

baroness stedman-scott: As policy responsibility for relationship issues has moved between departments several times since 1996, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. The policy responsibility for relationship issues currently sits with the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department does not make grants under section 22 of the Family Law Act (1996). However, we have funded a range of work to help couples (including those who are married) to improve the quality of their relationships. Since responsibility for this area moved to the Department, we have spent the following in each financial year: 2014/15 - £7.5 million2015/16 - £11.2 million2016/17 - £6.3 million2017/18 - £5.24 million2018/19 - £15.85 million2019/20 current forecast - £10.2 million Currently, these services are focused on the specific issue of parental conflict, and are delivered through our Reducing Parental Conflict programme.

Employment: Disability

baroness stroud: To ask Her Majesty's Government by what percentage they expect to close the Disability Employment Gap in (1) 2020, (2) by 2025, and (3) by 2030.

baroness stroud: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the Disability Employment Gap by 2030.

baroness stedman-scott: We are committed to reducing the disability employment gap, and will report on progress regularly. We will consider the case for a target as part of our work on the new National Disability Strategy which we have committed to publish by the end of 2020. In 2017, the Government set out its commitment to see one million more disabled people in employment by 2027. In the first two years of the commitment (between Q1 2017 and Q1 2019), the number of disabled people in employment increased by 404,000 while the disability employment gap has reduced by 1.4 percentage points. We help disabled people enter and stay in work through a range of programmes including the Work and Health Programme, the new Intensive Personalised Employment Support Programme, Access to Work and Disability Confident. We have invested in a programme of trials and tests to identify effective models of health and employment support to help people with health conditions or disabilities to stay in work or return to work. In the 2019 consultation, Health is Everyone’s Business, we set out proposals to support and encourage employers to be better at managing health issues in the workplace. A copy is attached. The Government has also announced that the Department for Work and Pensions will be bringing forward a Green Paper in the coming months on health and disability support. This will explore how the welfare system can better meet the needs of claimants with disabilities and health conditions now and in the future, to build a system that people trust and enables them to live independently and move into work where possible.



Health is Everyone's Business
(PDF Document, 784.31 KB)

Employment: Disability

baroness stroud: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the most common physical impairments to employment.

baroness stroud: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to conduct an audit to determine the most common physical impairments to employment; and when any such audit maytake place.

baroness stedman-scott: The table shows the numbers of disabled people in or out of work, and the employment rate of disabled people by main physical health condition in the UK in April to June 2017. The most common physical conditions for disabled people in and out of work are musculoskeletal conditions. In work (000s)Out of work (000s)Total disabled people (000s)Disabled employment rate (%)Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with arms or hands24621245853.7Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with back or neck5854521,03656.4Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with legs or feet43233376556.5Difficulty in seeing47388554.9Difficulty in hearing40246562.3Severe disfigurements, skin conditions, allergies53308264.0Chest or breathing problems, asthma, bronchitis23519843354.4Heart, blood pressure or blood circulation problems20321041249.1Stomach, liver, kidney or digestive problems21714336160.3Diabetes14211725955.0Epilepsy26669228.0Progressive illness not included elsewhere (e.g. cancer, multiple sclerosis, symptomatic HIV, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy)15725941637.7  Total with a physical health condition2,3812,0824,46353.4 Source: Characteristics of disabled people in employment, DWP/DHSC, Table 4, April to June 2017 Notes:For those who are out of work the reason they are out of work may not be due to their disability.The Department have announced the planned publication of Official Statistics on 24th March on ‘Employment of disabled people 2019’. These statistics give a detailed analysis and break downs of the number of disabled people in employment.Disability status is defined according to the Government Statistical Service harmonised standard, in line with the Equality Act 2010 core definition.'Main health condition' refers to the health condition that the survey respondent considers their main condition.Out of work refers to both those who are unemployed and economically inactive.Figures are for the working age population, comprised of people aged 16 to 64.Data is subject to sampling variation and is not seasonally adjusted.Precision of statistics is limited by small sample sizes.

Employment: Disability

baroness stroud: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to support SMEsto employ more staff with disabilities.

baroness stedman-scott: The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap and seeing a million more disabled people in work between 2017 and 2027. We offer support to employers of all sizes and to disabled people who wish to get or keep employment, through a range of initiatives. Disability Confident engages with employers ranging from large multinational corporations to local businesses. This scheme, which was developed by employers and disability organisations, encourages and supports employers to think differently about disability and to take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled employees. Over 16,500 employers are currently signed up to Disability Confident, of whom over 80% are small and medium enterprises, and that number is growing all the time. Access to Work supports people with a disability or health condition that affects the way they do their job to enter, sustain and progress in their employment. The scheme offers individually tailored support, advice, and if necessary a discretionary grant of up to £59,200 per year to cover costs above the level of employers’ statutory obligation to provide reasonable adjustments. We will publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020. This will look at ways to improve the benefits system, opportunities and access for disabled people in terms of housing, education, transport and jobs.

Pneumoconiosis: Compensation

lord wigley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many payments under thePneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 were made during each of the last three years in response to applications relating to persons who had been employed in the slate quarrying industry; and what was the total payment to this group in each of those years.

baroness stedman-scott: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Cabinet Office

Ethnic Groups: Equality

lord bourne of aberystwyth: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 13 February (HL1307), what action they propose to take in relation to the data collated for, and published by, the Race Disparity Unit.

lord true: The Race Disparity Unit publishes data and analysis on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/). This is consistent with our commitment to improve the quality of evidence and data on the barriers faced by different groups.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Plastic Bags: Fees and Charges

lord hayward: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to make an announcement in relation to the introduction of a plastic bag charge for small and medium-sized retailers.

lord hayward: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have changed their analysis of the impact of the introduction of a plastic bag charge for small and medium-sized retailers since July 2019.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: The 5p charge has been highly successful at reducing the use of single-use plastic carrier bags, doing so by over 90% in the main retailers since its introduction in 2015. To build on this success and encourage further behaviour change, last year the Government consulted on increasing the charge to a minimum 10p and extending it to all retailers. Our initial assessment indicates that a 10p charge would bring a further 90% reduction at supermarkets and 80% reduction at high street retailers in year one. This would be followed by a 90% reduction at small retailers by year three. Changes such as these are complex and will take time, and we will publish the summary of responses and a Government response setting out next steps in due course. Upon review, the Regulatory Policy Committee, an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, have agreed to the revised impact assessment and given it a positive ‘green’ rating. More information will be published along with the Government response in due course.

Fly-tipping

the marquess of lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what increase there has been in fly-tipping in the last five years; what estimate they have made of the cost of dealing with any such increase; what assessment they have made of any link between fly-tipping and criminal gangs; and what new measures they are proposing to address fly-tipping.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: Defra publishes annual fly-tipping statistics for England, with the most recent publication on 7 November 2019 detailing the number of fly-tipping incidents reported by local authorities in the year to 31 March 2019. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england. The statistics show that incidents of fly-tipping have gradually increased over the last five years, albeit with a decrease reported between 2016/17 and 2017/18. The 2018/19 figures reported an increase of 8% from 2017/18. However, this most recent increase in recorded incidents does not necessarily mean the number of fly-tipping incidents has increased. Local authorities have reported that as they make it easier for citizens to report fly-tipping, for example through mobile apps, they see an increase in the number of incidents recorded. Since 2017/18 we have changed the way that we present the costs of dealing with fly-tipping. The standard unit costs used for the majority of clearance and enforcement categories in previous statistical releases are now more than 10 years out of date. Defra therefore took the decision to cease using these costs from the 2017/18 fly-tipping statistical release onwards and total cost estimates for fly-tipping clearance and enforcement are not currently produced. However, we do report the clearance costs for ‘tipper lorry load’ and ‘significant/multi load’ incident categories, and enforcement costs for ‘prosecutions’, as these are reported directly by local authorities. In 2018/19, 3% of all fly-tipping incidents were of ‘tipper lorry load’ size or larger, compared with 4% in 2017/18. This is consistent with the 3% of these incidents reported in 2014/15. The cost of clearance to local authorities in England have shown an increase however, costing £12.9 million in 2018/19, compared with £12.2 million in 2017/18 and £7.3 million in 2014/15. Local authorities carried out a total of 2,397 prosecutions for fly-tipping offences in England in 2018/19, an increase of 7% on 2017/18 and 32% on 2014/15. Costs of prosecution actions have subsequently increased, from £288,037 in 2014/15 to £1,002,000 in 2018/19. The success rates for prosecution actions against fly-tipping are consistently above 95% and have been since records began in 2007/08. In 2018, Defra commissioned a review into serious and organised criminality in the waste sector. This considered the operation of organised criminal gangs in the waste industry, including in relation to illegal dumping and fly-tipping. The recommendations of this review were included within our Resources and Waste Strategy (RWS), published in December 2018, which set out an ambitious package of commitments to modernise the way waste is regulated, in order to prevent, detect, and deter waste crime, including fly-tipping. In recent years, we have bolstered local authorities’ powers to tackle fly-tipping and we committed to further reforms in the RWS. We are taking forward the commitment in the RWS to develop proposals for the reform of the waste carrier, broker, and dealer regime. We are working with industry and the regulator and we intend to consult later this year. At the same time, we intend to consult on the introduction of mandatory electronic waste tracking. This will reduce the ability of waste criminals to hide evidence of the systematic mishandling of waste and make it easier for enforcement authorities to identify material dropping out of the system, and therefore make it easier to protect against fly-tipping. The Environment Bill provides a significant step forward in delivering a number of the commitments set out in the RWS. The provisions in the Environment Bill will work to ensure waste criminals, such as illegitimate waste operators reliant on fly-tipping for income, are held accountable for their actions. Defra has previously worked with the Sentencing Council to amend sentencing guidance for fly-tipping offences and will continue this work to help to secure tougher penalties in line with the Government’s manifesto commitment. As well as legislative changes, Defra is developing a fly-tipping toolkit, following a commitment in the RWS. The toolkit will be a web-based tool to help local authorities and others work in partnership to tackle fly-tipping. It will cover, for example, the use of new technology to report fly-tipping, the presentation of cases to court, the sharing of intelligence within and between partnerships and promoting the duty of care to individuals and businesses.

Flooding Lessons Learned Review

baroness mcintosh of pickering: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement the recommendations contained in the report by Sir Michael Pitt The Pitt Review: Lessons learned from the 2007 floods, published on 25 June 2008, in particular to end developers’ automatic right to connect new developments to public sewers.

lord goldsmith of richmond park: The Government implemented recommendations from Sir Michael Pitt’s review through the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s report on the Post-legislative scrutiny of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 was in its Sixth Report of Session 2016–17, published on 26 April 2017. The Government response to the Committee’s report notes that planning practice guidance includes a hierarchy for sustainable drainage options that favours non-sewer solutions. Draining to a combined sewer should be the least favoured option in new development, to be considered when sustainable drainage options are not reasonably practicable. Removing the right to connect to an existing sewer therefore would offer no clear benefits over current arrangements and is likely to add costs and delay to the planning process for new housing.